John Hersey's first version of Hiroshima was published in 1946. This edition included updates on the six survivors he had originally profiled and was published in 1985. Regular readers of this blog know that I am completely appalled by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and I see no purpose for any nation or group, particularly one claiming to follow Islam, to possess such weapons. Perhaps the only thing more depressing than the desperate testimonials of these six survivors is how the author interspersed, as the years went by in the lives of the survivors, landmarks in the spread and development of the world's nuclear arsenal, such as the development of the hydrogen bomb and Indian proliferation. Some survivors tried to educate the world on Hiroshima's lesson, namely that humans must end war. Sadly, the world has so far refused to listen.
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